Ashurst wins Banking and Finance Team of the Year at The British Legal Awards 2023

Global law firm Ashurst has been named Banking and Finance Team of the Year at The British Legal Awards 2023 for its work advising longstanding client Goldman Sachs on the launch of ground-breaking Digital Assets Platform^TM by Goldman Sachs.

The new digital assets platform, GSDAP^TM is the first of its kind to be introduced to the market fundamentally transforming financial markets as we know them. Under Project Venus, the new Distributed Ledger Technology platform was used for the issuance of a 100 million euro denominated digital bond for the European Investment Bank, setting the benchmark for future market transactions to follow.

The Ashurst cross-border team was led by regulatory partner and bank industry co-chair Etay Katz and counsel Sidika Ulker. The wider team brought together specialists from across the firm's Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris-based finance regulatory practices, and London-based digital economy and capital markets practices.

Commenting on the win, Etay Katz said: "We're thrilled to be recognised for our work on such an unprecedented cutting edge project. The Goldman Sachs Digital Assets Platform will fundamentally transform financial markets as we know them and will help to pave the way for many others. Our value has undoubtedly been in challenging convention, engaging with policy makers and regulators to smooth the path and bringing counterparties and other advisers along the journey to successful launch. Our partnership with Goldman Sachs to deliver this project underlies a strong shared conviction and vision on the role DLT will play in financial markets transformation."

"We are proud to have received this award, which is a testament to the strength of our international finance practice," said global head of financial regulatory Jake Green. "This award continues to highlight our commitment to be trailblazers, pushing legal and regulatory boundaries to the benefit of our clients and our teams. The award coincides with the continued expansion of our world class digital finance practice to support increasing client demand for advice on transformational projects in capital and money markets across all financial centres in the world."

This is the fourth award for the Ashurst digital assets practice this year, having recently won the Innovative Lawyers in Digital Assets and Blockchain Award at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe 2023. The team were also named Finance Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2023 and took home the Global Digital Finance Award at the IFLR Europe Awards 2023.